Rivals or Comrades?
by Lieano2
Summary: Sometimes it's hard to tell with those two. BulbaSquirt.


A/N: This was originally one of the prolouges to Rings of Change, but I think it can stand on it's own. Enjoy the Poke'ness~.

--

The only thing that could have made the battlefield more eerie and tense was if tumbleweed were to roll by. But the chances of that happening toward the end of a chilly fall at the forest's edge were not likely. On one end of the long empty battle field, two large red eyes popped out from behind their fortress, darting back and forth across the land to see if the opponent had showed itself yet. After a few moments, the green beast was about to lower itself back into the safety of its barrier, but all the sudden there was a flash of blue on the opposite side of the field and a rock was zooming through the air, targeted right at the center of a green head. It hit its mark, right in-between two triangular ears, and the soldier fell down.

The silence was only interrupted by a soft chuckling on the attacker's side. Then, "Rocks?!" Bulbasaur shouted, jumping up onto of the rock he had used to shield himself. "You're a _pokemon_ and you use rocks?!"

Clearly offended at the bashing of his war tactics, Squirtle leapt onto his rock at the other end of the yard. "Well, you're strong against my water attacks so I had to improvise."

Despite his earlier anger, Bulbasaur grinned with triumph. "So you admit it then? I'm the strongest?"

"Heck no!" Squirtle shouted. "I merely had to find your weakness and it seems like I did, so that makes me the smartest _and_ the strongest! You're weak against rock."

"Smartest of what? Ignorant-Ville? I'm strong against rock-types too, idiot!"

Squirtle stumbled over his resolve for a second. "Oh -Yeah - Well… Not if they were on fire!"

"Congratulations. You just made me lose a few brain cells."

"I'll show you!" Squirtle shouted before reeling back his arm for another toss. He let the rock fly, but this time Bulbasaur was prepared. His vine whip soared through the air and seized the rock in mid-flight. From there he quickly turned its course completely around and gave Squirtle a dose of his own medicine. Now it was the plant-pokemon's time to laugh.

"Not funny!" Squirtle shouted angrily, standing back upon his platform. "That's cheating!"

"All's fair in love and war," Bulbasaur laughed.

"Enough with this farce!"

"Ooh, look who learned a big-person word!"

Squirtle, tired of this child's play, leapt off his rock and ran at his opponent with his bald head facing out. He smacked the distracted grass-pokemon good right in the center of the face with a Headbutt, then leapt back, getting ready to gloat. But Bulbasaur made a quick recovery and sent out shards of Razor Leaf. Squirtle, clearly being of ninja decent (or at least he thought so) dodged all the sharp leaves with quick precision and blasted Bulbasaur with a high-powered Watergun. Bulbasaur was knocked off his pedestal and onto the ground below him.

A pair of tiny manila feet tiptoed along the cool soft grass, making its way across the yard in search of fun. "Togi?" the small pokemon asked itself in wonder as it rounded the corner of the small cottage to see two of its friends fighting each other vigorously. The poor baby tilted its head in confusion. "Why? Don't they love each other?"

The battle carried for a quite a sum of minutes and Togepi watched with interest in seeing how it would all turn out. (The baby was convinced it would end with Squirtle and Bulbasaur saying their apologies and hugging.) Until, that is, finally a winner was made and a loser hit the ground.

"Yeah!" Bulbasaur cheered as Squirtle's body made a thunk on the ground below him. "Serves you right, punk!" Then all the sudden, Bulbasaur stopped gloating and his face fell. Squirtle's form was lifeless. Red eyes widened as Bulbasaur searched the possibilities. It could've been anything from fatigue to the use of too much power in that last vine whip. Whatever the cause, the turtle-pokemon was no longer moving. Bulbasaur eagerly trotted the length of the yard and looked into his rival's still face. "…Squirtle?"

In rapid succession, Squirtle's brown eyes flung open and a harsh Bubblebeam scarred the green pokemon's face, making him cry out in pain and fall backwards. Squirtle stood up, laughing in triumph and practically good as new. "That's right! Master Squirtle wins again! I'm undefeatable!"

"Togepiiii!" The baby pokemon cried, finally sensing something was wrong. It hadn't gotten this feeling when Squirtle had fallen, but for some reason, Togepi had a very bad feeling about Bulbasaur's condition.

Squirtle, alerted by the high-pitched cry, caught of glimpse of the egg-pokemon for the first time just before it disappeared around the corner. He blinked. "Togepi?" Then he looked down at the fallen pokemon. Red. There were red scars all over Bulbasaur's poor face, especially around his eyes. The turtle pokemon kneeled next to his rival and wondered at the scars. He said nothing.

"Togi! Togi!"

Pikachu's long yellow ears twitched at the hysteric voice and he turned from the table where he had been playing a rigorous game of Parcheesi with the humans. "Togepi?" he said his native tongue, just before Misty's own voiced concern. Both removed themselves from the table to nurture the now-crying infant. Misty took her baby up into her arms while Pikachu sat nearby, trying to figure out what the cause was. "What's wrong?"

"It's Bulby!" the baby wailed. "He's hurt!"

Pikachu's eyes winded. "Bulbasaur?" When the reality of Togepi's words registered, he turned around to face his own trainer. "Pi Pikachu!"

"What is it buddy?" Ash questioned. But he didn't get an answer before Pikachu darted from the room and he was forced to follow.

The nearest Pokemon Center was in the next town over and Squirtle refused to return to his ball for the journey, despite his own minor wounds from their battle. At the permission of Ash, he was even able to cradle Bulbasaur's pokeball the whole way in his tiny turtle arms.

When they did get to the Center, Bulbasaur was diagnosed with serious eye damage and a minor concussion, and put in the ER. Whenever possible, the restless cause of his troubles was at his bedside, waiting for his rival to wake up so that he could apologize fully. Squirtle didn't really know the cause for his actions. Since the dawn of time, the two pokemon had always been at war with each other. But he just couldn't shake the feeling of guilt and.. Longing for Bulbasaur to wake up. He couldn't explain it. He just really wanted to see his buddy's smiling face again…

***

It was the dead of night. Bulbasaur knew because he could hear the chirping of the night creatures outside. His red eyes slowly fluttered open and first, nothing really registered other than the dim, unfamiliar light above his head and the aching in his eyes. He blinked a few time to make it go away, but it didn't. Instead, he toughed through it and decided to have a look around. He figured out quickly that he was in a hospital bed, probably in a small-town Pokemon Center. But he was completely alone in the room.

Except for Squirtle, sleeping peacefully at his side. Bulbasaur couldn't help but smile. The blue turtle looked so (dare he say it) cute lying there with worry etched across his sleeping face, his small claws clenching in and out of fists. Bulbasaur imagined he was dreaming of himself, and then quickly shook the thought from his head.

Quietly and quickly, the plant-pokemon edged himself off the stiff bed and out the ER's window. Being a small Center in the middle of nowhere, the security was low and Bulbasaur thanked the gods of poverty that no alarms went off during his escape.

He flopped down onto the ground below and was immediately greeted by something very cold and kind of wet.

A rather malicious smirk crossed his face.

Squirtle was woken the next morning by the very loud chirping of the morning birds singing praises to the sun. He squirmed and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes before blinking wearily around the room. His first thought was the realization that Bulbasaur's bed was empty. Then quickly after that he saw the window just above slightly cracked open, letting a cool autumn's breeze flutter in. Squirtle panicked.

"Bulbasaur?!" he shouted, running around the room in a frenzy. "Oh God, what if he was kidnapped?! Then it'd be all my fault! It's all my fault!" He scrambled up onto the hospital bed and out the window, taking a crash, but falling on something light and fluffy. Squirtle blinked. "Wha-?"

He didn't get to finish his question. A cold, wet snowball coated his face. He blinked through the cold precipitation and stood up, following the sound of loud laughter before he saw Bulbasaur – _his_ Bulbasaur! – rolled over into the snow, holding his belly in glee.

Squirtle beamed, in spite of himself. "Bulbasaur," he said with an odd softness. "You're okay!"

"Of course I am," Bulbasaur said after his fit of chuckles, standing on all fours and whipping his laughter induced tears with the tip of his vine. "What do you think I am? A wimp like you?"

Squirtle smiled and let the moment settle for a while, just staring at his friend with relief. Bulbasaur smiled back and for a minute, and neither said anything.

Finally, the moment was broken when Bulbasaur's vines started to make another snowball. "What do you say, partner? Snow war sound good to you?"

"You're on!" Squirtle shouted, returning to his natural self as he began making a small snow fort.

From the roof of the small Pokemon Center, Pikachu watched the playful battle below with an all-knowing smirk between his red cheeks. "They don't even realize it do they?" he asked himself. He was quiet for a bit more, evaluating their actions. When he was satisfied with an answer he chuckled a little, shrugged, and said, "They'll figure it out someday," before turning to give the bonding pokemon their privacy.


End file.
